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Archive of: School Based Health Centers

Safeguard your role as medical decision-maker in the life of your child.
Parents' Rights in Education strongly urges you to take the necessary steps to protect your family from being asked probing and medically unrelated questions by their doctor. Choose your doctors wisely; talk to your children in advance about how they should answer questions that the doctor and government have no business asking. Be careful what school documents you sign.
This would include School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) which fall under HIPAA rules. Oregon Certified SBHCs that do not provide reproductive services (ie: morning after pill, abortion) are required by law to refer minors to agencies that will provide them confidential reproductive services.
In Oregon, minors of any age are allowed to access birth control-related information and services as well as treatment for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) without parental consent.
IS IT REALLY THE JOB OF YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT TO PROMOTE THIS?
View Oregon Health Authority's Minor Rights: Access & Consent to Health Care at: https://public.health.oregon.gov/HealthyPeopleFamilies/Youth/Documents/MinorConsent2012.pdf
On a more national level, check out: http://nypost.com/2013/09/15/obamacare-will-question-your-sex-life/

Sounds nice. Who doesn't want children to be healthy and happy. However...when you send your child to school to receive a quality education, do you know what health care services and messages their SBHC, teachers, and peers may be promoting? Who is ultimately responsible for the health care decisions of and services to minors?
Is it the job of your child's peers to market health insurance or promote contraception during the school day? Do you want someone else making health care decisions for your minor child?
The upcoming Oregon School-Based Health Center Network (OSBHC) 2013 Annual Conference: "BE SMART, BE WELL" on October 11 at Century High School in Hillsboro, Oregon, boasts of integrating health care and education within Oregon schools grades K-12.
Click here for more details:2013 Oregon SBHC Annual Conference Agenda

So...now grades K-12 public schools are in the business of advertising and promoting health insurance to your kids. Below are some segments from Oregon School-Based Health Center Network Monthly Network Newsletter, AUGUST 2013. The money/support for enrolling your child is pouring in!

We've gained additional funds for continued SBHC expansion.
We are creating new opportunities to align health and education reform and policy.
In July 2013, Oregon received nearly $2.9 million to 28 Oregon clinics-to enroll uninsured Americans in new health coverage options, made available through the Affordable Care Act. Thirteen of these awards are to SBHC medical sponsors.
Terina Keller, Youth Outreach Specialist at the Network, noted that SBHC staff at Portland's Madison High School had mentored her about obtaining and utilizing health care, and SBHCs would be a good resource to connect students and graduating seniors with Cover Oregon.
Oregon State Legislature's recent approval of the budget for fiscal year 2014 (July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014) and the passing of HB 2445 allows for the release of expansion funds for new SBHCs across Oregon.

You do not have to be an expert on the SBHCs, sex education, or Youth Advisory Councils ("YACs"). There is just not enough time in the day.
Parents' Rights in Education wants to provide you with knowledge that you can use when you need it. We are urging you to be equipped...and want to assist you by providing tools and tips that can save you time and energy.
If you have questions or concerns about a School-Based Health Center (SBHC) in your district, a Youth Advisory Council (YAC) at your child's school or if the Annual Oregon Adolescent Sexuality Conference (held in Seaside, Oregon, April 2014) is being promoted to students in your district then please visit the link below. Additional resources can be found on this webite as well.
Click here:Be Equipped

The lines are blurring.
There is a concerted effort to create a seamless relationship between healthcare and education in Oregon. Sounds nice. Sounds convenient.
But at what cost?
When your child goes off to school, who is ultimately responsible for them?
Who gets to decide...
The medicine that goes into your minor child's body.
What is "age-appropriate”.
The values that are going to be endorsed.
The Health-care services your child gets.
The “best practices” of family planning.
The community services that your child either receives or is encouraged to access.
What "trusted professional" will evaluate your minor child's private parts.
What constitutes "quality of care".
What confidential services minors will be encouraged to utilize.
What makes for a "healthy and happy" student.
What student healthcare services parents will not have knowledge of.
It is imperative that parents and guardians be resolute and alert to what services are being offered to their minor children. DRAW THE LINE on what others can do to YOUR minor child.

With the concerted and well-funded efforts to "blur the lines" between education and healthcare, there is a growing premise by some organizations, agencies, and public officials that...
"They know what is best for your minor child and that they are the guardians of their health"Really?
Most responsible parents want to retain their ability to make health-related decisions for their children. Public schools have an obligation to honor parent’s rights and their roles in the lives of their children. Schools are expected to support not destroy the parent/child relationship.
Oregon parents/guardians, do you know how your district handles matters of family privacy, children’s medical records/medical history, and parental notification? With school beginning soon, it is extremely important that you seek to understand the policy (and/or) practice of your district when it comes to healthcare services to your minor child?
Parents, you do have POWER. You don't have to be intimidated by confusing procedures or unfamiliar policies and terminology. Don't worry about this. Just ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS! You are entrusting teachers and school administrators to the care and protection of your minor child. You have THE RIGHT TO ASK QUESTIONS and have them answered in a reasonable amount of time and in a thorough and transparent manner. Negative press, drops in enrollment, public records requests, letters to the editor, legal action and bond levies failing are not what districts want to be dealing with.
Be diligent in matters of our child' healthcare, privacy and well-being. IF NOT YOU...THEN WHO?

Taking into account the content in the previous blog, parents and guardians need to be aware of the development of "Youth Advisory Councils" (YAC) in schools all across Oregon. Youth are being used within the schools to influence and "empower" their peers.The Oregon School-Based Health Care Network (OSBHC) is working to advance access to quality health care for youth. This sounds nice. Why should parents be concerned and on the alert to the recruitment of youth to these councils? Don't we all want our kids to be healthy and successful at school?It is important that parents and guardians not be mislead here. If you have spent some time looking at this website you will have discovered some of the messages and resources that your children are being encouraged to accept. Have you noticed that your rights as parents are often disregarded or usurped? Youth Advisory Councils plan school activities, develop marketing and outreach program to their peers, advocate for their local SBHC, promote SBHC Awareness Month, develop projects, create newsletters, utilize social media outlets, etc.Here are some examples of resources/messages that the Youth Advisory Council's are sharing with their peers.Links:
Take Care Down There
Amplify Your Voice
Go Ask Alice, Scarleteen,
The New 3R's
Advocates for Youth
The Rational Enquirer
Oregon SBHC Network
Oregon Youth Sexual Health Plan
Youth are encouraged to attend the annual Adolescent Sexuality Conference. Agenda includes items such as:

From Hesitancy to Truth: Empowering Adolescents to Discuss Sexual Health and Intimacy through School-Based Life Coaching

The Impact of Health Reform and Medicaid Expansion for Youth

Are There Strings Attached?: Recognizing Gender and Media Stereotypes in Friends with Benefits Relationships

International Laws and Treaties of Human Rights and Sexuality

Creating Your Firm Foundation; An Early Intervention Approach with Gender Non-Conforming Children

The youth in these YAC's may not be aware of all the above items. However, the Oregon School-Based Health Care Network (OSBHC) is. It is critical that you and your minor children know the constitutional and legal rights that you have once your child steps into an Oregon public school. See previous post which explains some of your legal rights.
*Your school should not be using youth to promote material, resources, links, messages, and events about sex without your knowledge!

Take a look at a current situation that is occurring in New York. Parents across the nation are waking up to what SBHC's offer their minor children.
*Click here:
http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2013/02/bloomberg-doses-tens-of-thousands-of-school-girls-with-morning-after-pill-parents-left-out-2572258.html
The link below is a GREAT tool for Oregon parents! It's a review of the sex ed curriculum in New York City schools, but similar curriculum is used in Oregon, across the country and even world, so this document is useful almost anywhere. It gives you substantive talking points you can easily use when speaking before a school board, writing an editorial, or talking to other parents.
*Click here:
http://www.miriamgrossmanmd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/sex_ed_report.pdf

Oregon has 63 Certified School-Based Health Centers. What does a "Certified" SBHC offer Oregon youth when it comes to reproductive services?
In an editorial written for the Hillsboro Argus by Paula Hester entitled "Oregon's school-based health centers offer convenience, confidentiality" (http://www.oregonlive.com/argus/index.ssf/2013/02/oregons_school-based_health_ce.html ) she states that Hillsboro school district's on-campus SBHC at Century High School has chosen NOT to provide contraceptives. Should concerned parents breathe a sigh of relief after hearing that contraceptives are NOT going to be provided? Parents' Rights in Education urges you to consider the following:
According to the Oregon SBHC Certification Requirements found in the local county health department contract under Program Element #41: Family Planning Program,

"The purpose of the Family Planning Program is to provide these services through a broad range of effective contraceptive methods and reproductive health services on a voluntary and confidential basis"

"Provide a broad range of contraceptive methods as defined in the Federal Title X Guidelines

"Provide an education program which includes outreach to inform communities of available services and benefits of family planning"

According to the SBHC Model of Care,

"Certified SBHC's must have a system in place for patients to seek care outside of the center's normal operating hours as well as referral systems for services not provided on site"

"Certified SBHC's are culturally sensitive, age-appropriate, and address the most important health needs of children and youth"

"Services in the SBHC are not limited to reimbursable services: preventative health, care coordination, and health education services are integral components of this model"

This means that if your minor child (of ANY age) seeks "advice" from their SBHC, they would have to be informed and counseled about the reproductive healthcare services available to them in their community. This could include emergency contraception or abortion services...and all without parental notification or consent. What about local control and actively seeking to engage parents? Parents won't know what is being given or shared with their child...but would be left to pick up any emotional or physical repercussions of such "services" if a complication would develop. Parents' Rights in Education urges you to CAREFULLY read any healthcare related documents that you receive from your child's school; KNOW what you are signing and CONSIDER THE IMPLICATIONS signing this document may have on your rights as the parent.
We also encourage you to view some of the links/sex messages (which can be found to the right of this post) that the Oregon SBHC Network and those it partners with endorse. Do these messages honor the parent-child relationship? Do they take into consideration the diverse values and norms represented within your community?
There is a strategic and well-funded effort to "blur the lines" between the education and healthcare sectors; the mission is to "break down barriers" and encourage youth to be in control of their own healthcare. The terminology used often sounds very wholesome and benign. However, our research over the past few years reveals some disturbing roadblocks to your rights as parents.Parents...be watchful for documents, messages, and comments that infringe on your rights as a parent. Often the verbiage around "health", "student success", and "access to services" may be packaged in a very positive light. Be sure to read between the lines and ask lots of questions! (http://www.oregonlive.com/argus/index.ssf/2013/01/parents_in_oregon_must_be_aler.html)

Reproductive Health Messaging - NASBHC
*Click link above to see the reproductive health messaging guidelines that the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) encourages School-Based Health Centers around the country to use.